Intro to Preterite Past Tense Verbs

The preterite tense is usually the first past tense we learn in Spanish. As a native speaker of English, a language with considerably less tenses than Spanish, it was a rough transition for me into the Spanish past tense.

I remember always hearing how hard the preterite tense is to native English speakers, and while it's true that I certainly had my ups and down while learning it, I didn't find it impossibly hard.

The truth is the preterite tense is really just like any other part of a foreign language. It's weird and difficult at first, but with time you start making sense of it as you use it more and more.

What is the preterite?

The preterite is used to describe an action or event that took place in the past and is now completed. Most times when you are talking about something that happened, or something someone did, you are going to use the preterite tense.

Examples of when we use the preterite :

I ate my dinner. (I did something)

We left the party. (we did something)

It rained yesterday. (something occurred)​

If you want say that you "used to do something" or that you "were doing something" you will not use the preterite. ​

Examples of when we don't use the preterite:

I used to eat my dinner.

We were leaving the party.

It was raining yesterday.

Preterite vs imperfect​

Choosing between the preterite and imperfect past tenses will be one of the biggest challenges when learning the Spanish past tense. In English we only have one past tense, but in Spanish there are several, and the preterite and imperfect are the most common. As I said before, the preterite is used when we are talking about a completed action in the past.

The imperfect will be used when we talk about how something happened or the way something was (generally). ​

Preterite Conjugations

Like pretty much all other Spanish verbs the preterite conjugations fall into one of two categories: Verbs ending in -ar and verbs ending in -er or -ir.

-Ar verbs

The conjugation rules for -ar verbs are as follows:

Infinitive Verb

-Ar Ending

+ Preterite Ending

Preterite Verb

Yo

Caminar

camin

+é

caminé

Tú

Caminar

camin

+aste

caminaste

Él/ella/usted

Caminar

camin

+ó

caminó

Nosotros

Caminar

camin

+amos

caminamos

Vosotros

Caminar

camin

+asteis

caminasteis

Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes

Caminar

camin

+aron

caminaron

-Er and -Ir verbs

..And here's the usual conjugation for verbs ending in -er or -ir:

Infinitive Verb

-Er/Ir Ending

+ Preterite Ending

Preterite Verb

Yo

Comer

Com

+í

comí

Tú

Comer

Com

+iste

comiste

Él/ella/usted

Comer

Com

+ió

comió

Nosotros

Comer

Com

+imos

comimos

Vosotros

Comer

Com

+isteis

comisteis

Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes

Comer

Com

+ieron

comieron

Irregular Preterite conjugations:

Okay so I have some bad news: the preterite tense has more irregular conjugations than any other tense in Spanish.​ In fact, there are quite a few. What's worse is there aren't any hard or fast rules for remembering these irregular preterites, and a lot of them are for common verbs that you'll use a lot.

This is such a broad topic that we wrote a whole another post about it, which you can check out here﻿﻿.

Here's a list of some of the common irregular conjugations:​

Header 1 / 1

Yo

Tú

Él, Ella, & Usted

Nosotros

Vosotros

Ellos, Ellas, & Ustedes

Andar

(to walk)

anduve

anduviste

anduvo

anduvimos

anduvisteis

anduvieron

Caber

(to fit)

cupe

cupiste

cupo

cupimos

cupisteis

cupieron

Conducir

(to drive)

conduje

condujiste

condujo

condujimos

condujisteis

condujeron

Dar

(to give)

di

diste

dio

dimos

disteis

dieron

Decir

(to say/tell)

dije

dijiste

dijo

dijimos

dijisteis

dijeron

Poder

(to be able to)

pude

pudiste

pudo

pudimos

pudisteis

pudieron

Poner

(to put)

puse

pusiste

puso

pusimos

pusisteis

pusieron

Querer

(to want)

quise

quisiste

quiso

quisimos

quisisteis

quisieron

Saber

(to know)

supe

supiste

supo

supimos

supisteis

​

supieron

Traer

(to bring)

traje

trajiste

trajo

trajimos

trajisteis

trajeron

Venir

(to come)

vine

viniste

vino

vinimos

vinisteis

vinieron

Ver

(to see)​

vi

viste

vio

vimos

visteis

vieron

Conclusion

There's a lot of hype behind preterite verbs, but not all of it is deserved. Yes this family of verbs can prove tricky at times, but it's nothing a little practice and persistence can't overcome!